ANRL is a “Research Library” that has a huge collection of Books, Magazines, Pictures, DVDs, Audio Cassettes and other material focusing on the Nudist Lifestyle from it’s early history in this country to the present. Numerous researchers have visited ANRL
and have found valuable information for their research projects.

We estimate that 50% of our magazine collection has been scanned and converted to searchable PDF files. We have converted many of the club newsletters to PDF. Searching the digital content with complex queries is a challenge but librarians are available to assist. Librarians can also assist finding material that has not been converted to searchable PDF.

ANRL wants to enhance it’s collection with completed Research Documents. If you know of any research document then please let us know and we could add it to our database.

We need ideas and help to develop a retrieval system to answer questions and facilitate research projects. Some things we need are:

Method of indexing and cataloging research documents

Completed Research Documents

Recent Requests

We get requests for help with research in various areas and this is a list of recent requests. We’ll add to the list as we continue.

Request: Hi, I’m a development producer in Canada. I’m interested in doing a television series about nudism and I’d like to know who some of the best researchers/anthropologists are in the field today. If you could give me some leads, it would be greatly appreciated. For the purpose of the series, I think it might be nice to be able to refer to both male and female experts in the field. Thanks so much and I hope to hear from you soon. Sincerely, Anna

Reply by Paul LaValley Nov 15, 2014

In response to your inquiry, I am co-ordinator of the Professors & Researchers Special Interest Group of The Naturist Society. Our members specialize in a great many fields, but none are currently working in anthropology. You can see their work on the bibliography pages at http://www.tnsprofessorsig.org.

You will also want to consult the fine bibliography compiled by Mark Story at http://www.naturistsociety.com/tns/resources/TNSBibliography.html.

If you want a particularly Canadian slant on the topic, you should be talking with Paul Rapoport who has been active in the women’s topfree movement, and Judy Williams of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society. Though I do not know him, I recently learned that Paul Thompson is currently teaching a course at the University of Toronto called Public Nudity: History, Law, and Science.

Looking beyond Canada, Carl Hild has compiled some dissertation titles dealing with nudity; they are posted on the SIG web site. Cec Cinder has written the most comprehensive history of organized nudism, focusing on Germany, England, and the United States. For a wider view yet, you might consult Bart Wijnberg, former head of the International Naturist Federation. Most of his research has been on the nude in art–as has much of my own. If you want ancient perspective, I am probably your best source there.

Marilyn Storey did some of the best scientific research in recent decades–until an automobile accident left her incommunicado.

If you want to examine American Politics and nudity, I can recommend more sources there.

Please let me know how I can further assist you.

My research is on women in the 1930’s in Florida and how they contributed to the naturist movement. What documents are available? (Oct, 1024)

I’m studying of the lack of supply and promotion of tourist destinations nudists/naturists in Argentina. I’m interested in the history dealing with tourism to the public Naturist/Nudist. There are travel agencies that promote accommodation, beaches, and tourist sites that offer a space for naturalist tourists in my country. I’m looking for any previous research work or thesis for use as a theoretical framework for my project, since I have not found a history dealing with tourism to the public Naturist/Nudist in the travel/tourist web sites. Any information that you could suggest would be very useful. (Jun 29, 2013)

I am looking for anything from publication in the fifties or sixties that describe the American Sunbathers Association’s tenants like lack of alcohol, etc. of what they believed in. Maybe one of their publications from that era might have some interesting info on the beliefs of the era? (Jun 28, 2013)

Regarding expanded use and back-up - Has there been discussion of allowing an academic institution to hold the back-up for the ANRL? (Ref: Carl M. Hild, PhD - Member: 4162 - Aug 06, 2013)

Has there been discussion of working with an academic institution to foster student investigations that utilize the ANRL materials? This could range from a person in Library Science, to Behavioral Health, to Sociology, to Anthropology, and other fields?

Has there been discussion about copyright issues for the “Orphan Journals” for which there is often concern by academic libraries?